60m sales and counting for Windows 8

Microsoft has sold in excess of 60m Windows 8 licenses in the ten weeks wince the operating system was launched.

40m licenses were shifted in the first month. That puts the pace of sales roughly in line with those of its predecessor Windows 7.

This [number] represents the cumulative sales of Windows 8 including both upgrades and sales to OEMs for new devices,” a statement carried by TechCrunch reads. This is a similar sales trajectory that we saw with Windows 7.

We have seen a significant increase in the number of Windows 8 certified systems since general availability at the end of October. There are now more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT.”

The company also claims to be seeing strong growth” in app development for the platform, with the number of available apps quadrupling since last year’s launch. App downloads have apparently passed the 100m mark.